Lovely, chunky clusters of pet chow with further chocolate and peanut butter, and a coating of powdered sugar! Midwest summer season bliss.

Hear me out: summer season is totally the most effective time of 12 months for pet chow. You make it, you freeze it, and also you take pleasure in that salty-sweet crispityness everytime you really feel such as you want a chilly hit of chocolate, peanut butter, and crunch.

Pet chow is simply a kind of easy pleasures that takes a hangout / cabin weekend / highway journey / night at residence on the sofa to a greater emotional place, know what I imply? No state of affairs can’t be made higher with a handful of this completely happy little snack.

I’m a toddler of the 90s and I grew up within the Midwest, so sure, I’m skilled on this space.

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In This Submit: Every little thing You Want For Pet Chow

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Pet chow is finest when it’s:

• EXTRA COLD
• EXTRA CRISP
• EXTRA CHOCOLATEY
• EXTRA CLUSTERED

Let me current to you the way I feel pet chow ought to at all times look:

Lovely, chunky clusters.

The pet chow I grew up with was extra like particular person items of cereal that had been fully coated with powdered sugar. It was served room temperature and also you ate it one piece at a time.

However have you learnt what’s much more enjoyable? In the event you go for MORE chocolate and MORE peanut butter and MORE butter, you’re going to get MORE sticking-together, and that’s going to create magical little clusters. And for those who make it very chilly, it’s… nicely, it’s a thick and crispy little chew that’s simply tremendous scrumptious.

That jumbo cluster you’re taking a look at in that image is only a grown up’s model of the unique. This stays true to the fundamentals however simply dials up all the pieces good: the chocolate, the peanut butter, the butter. It provides just a bit extra pleasure with the feel, the form, the temperature. It makes for supremely satisfying grazing. It’s an actual delight.

What Is Pet Chow

For many who are younger or non-Midwesterners, Pet Chow, also called Muddy Buddies, is a snack (dessert? prized possession? Wiki calls it a “home made sweet” – lol) that’s made by coating crispy cereal like Rice Chex in melted chocolate peanut butter combination and tossing it with powdered sugar. It’s meant to be eaten by the handful, like a dessert-y model of Chex Combine.

It is likely one of the nice Midwestern meals contributions of the 80s and 90s (my roots!) and due to my sturdy opinions on freezing it, I’m making my case at present that it’s the right candy snack / enjoyable factor that you have to be making to deliver pleasure into your life for these previous few weeks of summer season.

I’m calling this “Additional Good” – it solely differs from the recipes on the again of the Chex containers by having much more of that chocolate-peanut-butter coating, due to this fact making it further thick, further clustery, further delish.

How To Make Pet Chow

Make a Chocolate Combination

First: soften chocolate, peanut butter, and butter in an enormous bowl. Microwave works nice. That is the Midwest. We aren’t fancy.

Melted chocolate goes in with the cereal.

Combine Chocolate with Cereal

Stir it up till it’s coated.

ABSOLUTELY NO PIECE LEFT BEHIND.

Toss with Powdered Sugar

As soon as the cereal is coated, toss it with powdered sugar so every bit is coated and dry sufficient to the touch.

Midwestern children of the 90s (hey) will agree with me that mixing the chocolate coated cereal in a paper grocery bag is the genuine and correct approach. I imply, is it actually pet chow with out the paper bag?

However in actuality, any large bag (ziplock, paper bag, even an enormous mixing bowl which you can toss very gently in order to not break the cereal) will get the job carried out.

Chill Time

Lastly, switch it to some form of floor the place it could “dry” aka set into little bites of crispy scrumptious chocolate peanut butter heaven.

I usually use a pair baking sheets lined with parchment which I then switch to the freezer as a result of FROZEN PUPPY CHOW IS LIFE CHANGING.

(For optimum clustering, so don’t unfold it out an excessive amount of! simply form of let it lay the way it desires to put and the freezing course of will assist the clusters type.)

How To Retailer Pet Chow

Completely retailer this addictive bounty within the freezer. I preserve it in hermetic containers (like a lidded plastic meals storage container, for instance) or simply in a Ziplock bag.

Sure, the fridge works, the counter will even work. However the freezer is WHERE IT’S AT for an additional crispity satisfying crunch. Plus, it travels nicely and makes it last more.

Pet chow (particularly out of the freezer) is absolutely the excellent snack to seize for:

• cabin weekends
• highway journeys
• bonfire snacking
• pool days
• children and youngsters typically (we don’t usually have youngsters in our home, however lately we did and after we introduced the pet chow out, there have been precise cheers after which it was pounded)
• simply grabbing a cluster or 5 for somewhat cool crunchy deal with after dinner

Oh, the enjoyment and delight of that extra-chocolatey chilly crunch! I hope this helps you reside somewhat extra evenly in August. HAPPY MUNCHING.

Pet Chow: Often Requested Questions

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Different Chocolatey Summer season Desserts